Dhaka International Trade Fair 2020 begins from Wednesday

The 25th edition of Dhaka International Trade Fair (DITF) will commence from January 1, 2020 at its usual venue in the capital's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the month long fair on Wednesday 10am, at Bangabandhu International Convention Centre.

The permanent venue for DITF at Purbachal has not been ready yet.

Commerce Minister, Tipu Munshi spoke about the venue on Tuesday noon at a press conference organized by Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) in Sher-E-Bangla Nagar.

"The venue at Purbachal hasn't been completed yet. We hope the venue will get ready by May, 2020. But I don't think we are going to move the fair there in next 2 years. Until then, the fair will be held here," said the minister.

"We tried to maintain international standard for this iteration. The process began since the last fair," the commerce minister further added.

Every year, city dwellers suffer from traffic congestion during the period of DITF, due to the huge gathering of people.

With the metro rail project also running in full swing in the fair area, general people have expressed their concerns how will they move from one place to another during the fair.

In this regard, Commerce Secretary Md Jafar Uddin said: "This year we will take extra care of traffic situation as metro rail works is under process. We gave the responsibility to the security committee of the fair. They will handle it."

"We will suggest people to use west side roads during the fair to avoid the traffic congestion," he added.

Asked whether these actions will be sufficient to curb the traffic congestion during the fair, Secretary replied, "I think this will be enough to curb the traffic situation."

The entry fee has been increased by Tk10 for adults, making it Tk40 per person. The entry fee for children remains unchanged at Tk.20. 25 percent of the total tickets will be available for online purchase.

"We tried to make better environment for this iteration compared to previous years. So stall allotment and public entry fee has been increased this year," Tipu Munshi Remarked.

A total of 483 stalls and pavilions would showcase quality products from home and abroad this year.

Different enterprises from 21 countries, including USA, UK, Italy, Australia, Germany, China, South Africa, Turkey, Dubai, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Pakistan and Brunei will take part in the fair.

EPB states the export earnings from the fair to be $19.46 million and $35.50 million in 2018 and 2019 respectively.

The traditionally month-long fair starting on the first day of the Gregorian calendar, has been jointly organized by the EPB and the Ministry of Commerce since 1995.

The fair will be opened from 10 am to 9:30pm till January 31.